Because we have no a priori knowledge of the best form of government, the search for good societies requires experimentation as well as theory — trying many new institutions to see how they work in practice.

I think there's good reason to expect competing sea-top jurisdictions to settle on a scheme of governance more libertarian than what the world's current nation states have to offer. But I also think there's little reason to expect a seastead to embody the system of most libertarians' dreams unless a lot of libertarians coordinate and settle there. In that case, it's really clear that creating a libertarian society from whole cloth depends on the prior existence of libertarians, which depends on the success of the folk activism that produces them.
For more on seasteading, check out yesterday's Cato Policy forum with Patri Friedman.
[Cross-posted at Cato@Liberty]